A Little More Love
by RayWritesThings
Summary: When Harry, Ron and Hermione happen upon someone unexpected during their camping out, their fortunes in the Horcrux hunt turn out for the better. DH AU


**Hello, readers. I've decided to start cross-posting some of my fics from AO3 and tumblr over to FFN, so if you recognize this story most likely you've read it on either of my accounts there (Ray_Writes and raywritesthings, respectively). If you haven't read it before, I hope you enjoy!**

**-RayWritesThings**

**A Little More Love**

Harry sat with Ron and Hermione in the tent, listening with the Extendable Ears Hermione had packed as the unknown men and goblins settled into their impromptu dinner twenty feet away or so. They each exchanged some of their stories of why and how they'd ended up on the run. Harry recognized Ted Tonks, the goblin Griphook, and all three of them were pleased to hear their old classmate Dean Thomas' voice.

Judging by the shadows being cast over the tent from the travelers' fire, there was perhaps one other witch or wizard present who'd yet to be named.

"And what about you, little lady?" The man named Dirk asked. "Arthur's aren't you?"

"Guilty," said a voice that went straight to Harry's heart, seizing it in a vice grip. _Ginny. _He and Ron both started up at once, and Hermione had to reach out and pull them both down.

She was right there, not a stone's throw away. Sitting out in the cold with strangers. With Dean, Harry couldn't help noticing with a twinge of pain.

"I'd wondered what had happened after — well, is it true what you did?"

"It is, yeah."

"Sorry, what's this?" Ted asked. "You never did get round to explaining why you're out here, you being pureblood and all."

"Yeah, you just told me Snape chased you off the grounds," Dean added.

"That he did."

There was a snort, which turned out to be Dirk's. "After she tried stealing the sword of Gryffindor from his office."

There were a few exclamations of astonishment that Harry couldn't bother to parse out, too surprised himself. He could see Ron and Hermione exchanging wide-eyed looks, and it was taking everything for all of them to remain quiet in order to hear. He stood and went to the mouth of the tent, not stepping out but hovering just on the edge.

"Wasn't successful, was it? I never heard anything in the _Prophet,_" said Ted.

"Well you wouldn't even if we had been, would you?" Ginny countered in her easy way. She sounded just like she always had, and yet it was music to Harry's ears. Like her voice carried the power of phoenix song.

"True," Ted remarked.

"Well go on, Ginny, what happened?" Asked Dean.

"I heard you got the case smashed open but Snape caught the other two on the stairs," said Dirk.

"He was coming up just as we got it out, yeah. So I figured that about did me in what with my family being blood traitors and all. I smashed a window and took off on my broom."

"Your broom?" Ted asked with a laugh. "What did you have it on you for?"

"Everyone on the Gryffindor Quidditch team's taken to carrying theirs around. There were rumors the Slytherins were planning to jinx them."

"And you were able to get off the grounds that way?" Asked Dirk.

"I was flying high enough that most of the Death Eater's spells went wide," Ginny answered. "That was after they even realized someone was making a break for it. Had a time of it getting past some Dementors down by the gates. They flew up to meet me. If Harry hadn't taught us Patronuses in the D.A., I don't think I'd be here."

"I'll say," Dean agreed. "You haven't...heard from him, have you?"

"Not a thing," said Ginny on an unhappy sigh. Harry felt it like a physical weight on him. He longed to just step out of the tent and run to her, but even he knew how foolish it would be to show up in front of that many people, most of whom he didn't know very well.

"You should not have troubled yourself," Griphook spoke up. Then he laughed. "The sword was a fake."

"Was it?" Ginny asked sharply.

"The sword of Gryffindor!" Ted shouted.

"Oh yes. It is a copy — an excellent copy, it is true — but it was Wizard-made. The original was forged centuries ago by goblins and had certain properties only goblin-made armor possesses."

"Snape put the copy in Gringotts a few days after your attempt," Dirk continued. "Suppose he'd gotten the say-so from You-Know-Who by then."

"And you didn't tell them it was a fake?" Ted asked.

"I saw no reason to trouble them with the information," Griphook stated with a smug undertone. All the other men laughed. Harry couldn't hear Ginny's among it.

"What about my friends? Neville and Luna, did you hear anything about them? They say they're alright, but…" she trailed off.

"They suffered no serious injury, so far as I am aware," the goblin answered.

Harry looked back to Ron and Hermione and could tell they were both glad to hear that. Hermione still had a hand on Ron's arm, ostensibly to keep him from rising and doing anything rash while wearing the locket; Harry didn't miss how her thumb was rubbing circles over his wrist.

Ginny and the others were talking about Snape now, about whether or not he really had killed Dumbledore. Dirk seemed to be doubtful.

"You know, a lot of people haven't believed Harry over the years," Ginny remarked coolly. "And they've all pretty much been proven idiots. Were you interested in joining them?"

"Alright. I only mean to ask, if he is this Chosen One, or whatever you call it, where is he? Gone off to hiding. You'd think he'd be gathering a resistance or something."

"There wouldn't be many people resisting if he got killed while trying to organize it."

They talked some more, and Dirk even floated the idea that Harry was in fact already dead and the _Prophet _was simply withholding that information, too. Eventually they all left the spontaneous campsite to sleep under the cover of the trees, and they footsteps and voices started to fade away.

The three of them pulled the Extendable Ears, Harry's mind racing. "Ginny— the sword—"

"She's there. She's right _there,_" Ron practically moaned.

Harry reached into the mokeskin pouch Hagrid had given him for his birthday and dug around.

"Harry, what are you doing?" Hermione asked, her voice pitched high in worry.

His fingers finally closed around the slippery fabric of the Invisibility Cloak, and Harry hurriedly threw it around his shoulders. "I'm going to get her."

"I'm coming with you," Ron said immediately.

"We'd barely fit the two of us, and not at all with Ginny," Harry argued. "Besides, you're still wearing the locket."

Ron looked down at the thing with a scowl.

"Look, you can help bring us back to the tent," Harry said. "Once I leave the protections, I won't be able to find the specific spot again. Just the general location. We'll need you to bring us back in."

"Oh, alright," Ron agreed with a grumble.

"Harry, are you sure?" Hermione asked, and the two of them turned towards her in surprise. "I'd be happy to see Ginny, too, but how much can we really tell her? You did break up with her because we were going on this mission."

"To keep her safe, and she's not any safer out there," Harry replied tersely. He did not want to think what would happen to Ginny if she was caught out there with rogue goblins and Muggleborn Dean Thomas and Dirk who'd been on his way to Azkaban before he'd escaped. Determined, he pushed back the flap of the tent and strode out into the dark, following the noises he could hear up ahead through the trees.

It didn't look as though any of the wizards or goblins had a tent like the one they'd borrowed from Perkins. Harry slowed his pace as he came upon the first bedroll, and made his way around the perimeter of the spot they'd scoped out.

Ginny stood silhouetted by the tiny amount of moon visible through the foliage above. Her slight figure was only an arms' length from him now. Whether she was not tired or merely waiting for the men to finish preparing their own sleeping arrangements before seeing to her own, he couldn't tell.

"_Mufflilatio,"_ Harry whispered as he let the tip of his wand poke out of the cloak towards the others in the forest. Then, only slightly louder, he said, "Ginny."

She whirled around, her hair fanning out as she did so, and her wand pointed just inches to the left of him. Harry carefully took the hood down part of the way, and he could tell the moment Ginny recognized him by the widening of her eyes.

He beckoned her to come with him through some more trees to better hide themselves. Even if the others couldn't overhear them, they could still catch sight of him if he remained here.

"What's your tattoo?" She asked him scarcely before he'd turned back around to face her again. Her wand was still raised.

"Er, I haven't got one," he answered. Then it hit him. "Oh, but Romilda Vane thinks I've got a Hungarian Horntail on my chest." Harry held up a hand to stop her approach. "What did you give me when I fell off my broom in my third year?"

"A singing card."

He hadn't really been in doubt that it was her, but it was relieving to hear all the same. Ginny smiled, and it was radiant. Her hair was a barely combed mess and he doubted she'd had a wash in the last few days, but she was the most beautiful thing in the world. When she threw her arms around him in a hug, Harry was quick to return it. There was no flowery scent to her hair now, but it did not diminish in the least how fiercely Harry had missed her.

She was still wearing her broom strapped to her back with a bit of cord tied to each end, so it made it a bit awkward.

"I'm so glad you're alive."

"You thought I wasn't?"

"No. But I couldn't be sure. None of us could." She pushed out of his hold. "Why didn't you take your Galleon?"

"My what?"

"The D.A. Galleon, you prat. That's how I was able to meet up with Dean once I got to the outside. Seamus wanted me to see if he was alright."

A second wave of relief hit him upon hearing that Ginny was with Dean on behalf of someone else and not as her first choice. He thought she could tell what he was thinking judging by the shrewd look she was giving him.

Harry opened up the Invisibility Cloak for her to get under. "C'mon. Ron and Hermione are waiting."

It was the most natural thing in the world to take her hand and lead her back the way he'd come. Harry told himself it wasn't inappropriate; it was dark and the ground was uneven. They might trip or lose the other otherwise.

"We're nearly there. Hermione's got enchantments up, but Ron's waiting," Harry muttered under his breath.

"How's he going to find us if we're invisible?" Ginny muttered back.

Harry froze. "Er, right."

A soft giggle left her as he took the cloak off both of them. Harry hoped he had stayed true in their course. He didn't like standing out here without any sort of protection or disguise.

But an arm reached out and pulled both him and Ginny through an invisible barrier of sorts. Harry saw the tent and Ron embracing his sister hard enough to lift her off her feet.

"Careful!" Ginny yelped.

"Merlin, you wouldn't believe how much I've missed you!" It was amazing to see the transformation that Ron had undergone. Even with the locket around his neck still, he was beaming from ear to ear, and some color had risen back into his cheeks if only for the moment. "Come on, we've got Perkins' old tent. There's not much in the way of food, mind."

Harry followed the two Weasleys in through the tent entrance.

"Oh, Ginny!" Hermione was standing just inside and quickly embraced the other girl as well. "I'm so glad you're alright. What were you thinking?"

"Yeah, wouldn't be Hermione if you didn't start right in on the lecture," Ginny remarked with a grin over her shoulder at Harry. "What are you three even doing here? How'd you know to be?"

"We didn't," Harry answered truthfully. "We've been moving locations every few days. Thought we'd been found when we heard you lot approaching." He couldn't seem to tear his eyes off her, real and standing in the tent with the three of them. They'd been so long without anyone else's company that she seemed to brighten up the place just by being there. He wanted to hug her again, kiss her the way they had on his birthday. There was an ache in his jaw just standing there and holding himself back.

"Well, that's luck for you."

"You certainly did get lucky after trying to steal from Snape," Hermione pointed out once again. "And all for a fake!"

"That's the funny thing. I don't know why Snape would've sent a fake sword to a vault in Gringotts," said Ginny. "Because he's got to know it's a copy."

"What d'you mean?" Asked Ron.

A sly grin played around the corners of Ginny's lips as she reached around her back and under her robe. It turned out a broom wasn't the only thing she was carrying on her back.

Hermione gasped. "You got it?"

For the first time in nearly five years, Harry was once again in awe as he stared at the ruby-encrusted sword of Gryffindor. It seemed to shimmer extra bright in the light cast by their lamps as Ginny held it out for their inspection. The sword, the real sword of Gryffindor, in their possession just as Dumbledore had wanted. Finally, something had gone right.

"Took it with me when I jumped. I wasn't letting Snape have it. That was the whole point of the stunt. It's Harry's." Her smile faded a little. "I heard from Fred and George that they've all gone on the run now. Mum and Dad are hiding out at Great Auntie Muriel's."

"But they're okay?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, better than you. How come you're so pale?"

"Ron got splinched a few weeks back," Hermione explained to her own shoes. "It was my fault."

"Alright, well have you been eating? Resting?" She sounded a little like her mother fussing that way, Harry privately noted.

"Not much eating around here," Ron grumbled, closer to the moods he'd been exhibiting of late.

"Oh, really," Hermione huffed, turning to busy herself with clearing away the tins of fish she had tried to cook.

Harry checked his watch. It wasn't quite time to switch off yet, but he didn't want to hear another row just as soon as Ginny had joined them. He didn't want her thinking he was lost with no idea of what to do and little control over their group. "Alright, Ron, give me the locket."

Ron pulled the chain from around his neck and rolled his shoulders, relaxing as he held it out to Harry.

Ginny raised an eyebrow. "Wasn't that one of the things we threw out in Grimmauld Place that summer?"

Harry laughed humorlessly as he put it on. "Yeah." He glanced at Ron and Hermione. There wasn't much room for privacy in the tent to discuss, but how much were they going to tell Ginny? Dumbledore had only ever given him permission to speak to his two friends about it.

_And that had gone well, hadn't it? _Asked a voice in Harry's head. Ron and Hermione were close to their breaking points, they were no further to defeating Voldemort than they had been after their breakin at the Ministry, and even now that they had the sword, Harry still had no idea what he was supposed to do with it. Because Dumbledore had never told him.

"Look, it's sort of complicated. But basically, this used to belong to Vol—"

"DON'T!" Ginny dropped the sword with a clang and lunged forward, pressing her palm flat over Harry's mouth to stop the rest.

He ripped away from her. _"What?_" Sure, Ginny had never quite said the name herself, but she'd never objected to Harry saying it.

"There's a taboo on his name," she explained, still breathing harshly from the sudden movement. "Anyone who says it trips an alarm that sends Snatchers to their location. Kingsley almost got caught that way."

"Snatchers?" Ron echoed.

"Death Eater wannabes. They get money from the Ministry for rounding up Muggleborns and blood traitors. Anyone against You-Know-Who."

"Oh, of _course,_" said Hermione. "Because only the really brave witches and wizards use his name, and they're the ones they want to catch. Did Kingsley get away?"

"Just barely, was what I heard. I don't know what protections you've got, but best not to chance it out here."

Harry swallowed down his irritation and nodded. He was suddenly quite glad that Ron often insisted he not say Voldemort's name, as that had probably unknowingly kept them safe the last several weeks.

Ginny pushed some of her hair that had fallen in her face back from her forehead. "Anyway, go on. You were saying about the locket?"

"Right. Well it was- er, _his_, and if we destroy it we're closer to stopping him."

"How so? It's not enchanted is it?"

"It is. Sort of like — well, the diary," Harry realized. All at once he felt rather stupid for not wanting to tell Ginny; she had just as much experience with Horcruxes as any of them, even if she didn't know it. "See, this thing and the diary, they've got bits of- of his soul in them—"

"What?" Ginny took a step back, clearly horrified.

Hermione gave him a reproachful look, and Ron didn't seem very happy either.

"She had a right to know! Look, the point is until these are all taken care of he can't be killed. Not fully. He'll just be a shade, like last time."

"So how many of these has he got? How many of them have you gotten?" She asked.

"Just this one," he admitted. "There's only three more, we think."

"You think or you know?"

"Well it's not as if he told us himself!" Harry snapped. It figured that as soon as someone else got here they would start interrogating his leadership and find it lacking. Ginny would probably take off on her broom with Ron and Hermione to have brilliant adventures where they pranked Snape and everything was fun, while he was left behind in the tent. "The whole point of this thing is he has secret safeguards in place to keep himself from dying!"

"Oi, lay off her," Ron growled.

Ginny held out an arm as her brother stepped up next to her, keeping him from moving forward. "It's fine, Ron. Harry, take that locket off."

"I'm fine," he said stiffly. He'd only been wearing it a few minutes.

"You've been wearing a bit of his soul, and you really think that wouldn't affect you?" She asked with one eyebrow arched. "Why would _any _of you wear it?"

"We don't have a way to destroy it," Hermione tried to explain. "We had to keep it safe."

"And you couldn't keep it in your bag? Wearing it's probably what this thing wants you to do, just like writing in it's what the diary wanted _me _to do."

"It hasn't talked or anything," Harry protested.

She gave him a pitying look that made him feel rather thick. "Because you haven't opened it, probably. It's a locket."

"But it doesn't open," said Ron. "We all tried that summer, remember?"

But Harry picked the locket up and stared at the snake on the lid. "Maybe because it only opens for some people," he murmured. He stared at the snake, entranced by it.

"Harry." Ginny's hands were on either side of his face, wrenching his gaze up to meet her eyes. "Take it off. Please."

Shakily, he did, holding it out to Ginny. She dropped it onto an empty chair, and suddenly it felt easier to breathe. He thought even Ron and Hermione both looked less tense

"Okay, so, destroying it. How do these things get destroyed?"

"There's a few ways," Hermione said, taking over and reverting to lecture mode. "Using the Killing Curse or Fiendfyre can work, but we're not sure any of us could cast the first and the second is far too dangerous."

"Tell that to Crabbe," Ginny remarked with a shake of her head. "He's been practicing it down in the dungeons supposedly."

"So we're dropping the locket off in the dungeons? Brilliant," said Ron. Only when Harry looked and saw the twinkle in his friend's eyes did he realize he was joking. It was a good thing he'd checked, because Harry had been about to snap again.

"Right, well the third way is with Basilisk venom," Hermione continued. "But obviously, that's very hard to get."

Ginny blinked and straightened up slightly as she picked up the sword again. "Well then, here you go, then."

Harry stared at it. "Er, not following."

"Yeah, Ginny, that's a sword, not a Basilisk fang," Ron pointed out.

She rolled her eyes. "Well, you never had to listen to Great Auntie Muriel go on about her goblin-made tiara." She cleared her throat and said, in rather good imitation of her great-aunt's nasal voice, "Goblin silver never needs cleaned, dear. It repels all dust and dirt, only imbibing that which strengthens it. Not once in fifty years have I had need to polish it."

"So?" Asked Ron.

But Harry got it. As did Hermione, with a shout of, "Harry!"

"I know!"

"Know what?" Ron asked with annoyance.

"Harry stabbed the Basilisk with the sword, which means it's impregnated with Basilisk venom since that would make it stronger," Hermione explained in a rush. "It can destroy Horcruxes!"

"That must have been how Dumbledore took care of the ring," Harry realized. Finally the pieces were coming together, and his frustration with Dumbledore banked just as his gratitude and love for Ginny swelled. He took the sword by the hilt from her, then turned to face the locket.

"What are you waiting for, mate?" Ron was now just as invigorated as the rest of them, and Harry wondered if perhaps the worst of this quest was about to be behind them all.

Still, looking at the locket and thinking of Ginny's words, he realized Voldemort probably had one last protection in place. "I have to open it."

He looked up at Ginny, who was staring at the snake as well. She met his eyes after a moment, and Harry wondered if she had felt his gaze. "Parseltongue?"

He nodded.

Ginny blew out a breath. "Right."

"I think the rest of us should all keep back," Hermione suggested, moving over to both Weasleys and guiding them to the edge of the tent. "The less distractions the better."

Harry turned back to the locket and placed it on the ground as he watched the snake on the front, willing it to seem real and alive. He thought of how cold and hungry and miserable he'd been the last several weeks, of his friends' fraying tempers and all their anger at not knowing what Dumbledore had wanted them to do, at this first glimpse of hope they'd had since having to abandon Grimmauld Place.

The hope that Ginny had provided.

What was it that Dumbledore had once said? _Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled _that _out of the hat._

"Hang on," he said, facing them all again. "I think it has to be Ginny."

"Sorry?"

She looked perhaps even more stunned than Ron or Hermione. Harry walked over and held the sword out. "You're the one who risked going into Snape's office to get it. Fleeing Hogwarts, making your way here. It will work best for you. At least this first go." If Dumbledore were here right now, Harry was confident he would say the same, if in more eloquent terms than Harry had.

"Harry, I- I'm not good with these things."

"No, but you learned from them. Better than any of us did. Ginny, you held Vol- _Riddle _off for a whole year, and you're stronger now. I know you can do this. You've already beaten him."

Ginny held his gaze for a long moment before stepping up to meet him, her hand closing around the hilt of the sword again. He let go and walked with her back over to the locket.

"I'm going to tell it to open, and then you stab it. Okay?"

Ginny nodded, expression grim as she raised the sword. "Do it."

He looked back at the snake and tried to visualize it moving again. Then he hissed, _"Open."_

The golden doors of the locket opened wide, revealing an eye — Tom Riddle's eye, before it had turned red and slitted like a snake's — behind the glass windows inside.

That was all Harry saw, for the sword crashed down into it a moment later. The hiss of Riddle's voice that had only just started to emanate turned into a scream only matched by the clang of metal. The locket shattered and a bit of smoke rose from the inside. The Horcrux was no more.

He looked up at Ginny, who was breathing harshly, her eyes fixed on the shattered pieces. Then, slowly, her blazing eyes rose to his.

The sword fell with a thump, and Harry met her halfway, their lips melding together. Ginny's hands were everywhere at once, while Harry found his buried in her hair. How could he have ever believed he could give this up? Wanted man or no, what was the point of living without this to live _for_?

"Oi," Ron protested, far more weakly than he had on Harry's birthday. They broke apart anyway. "You can't keep doing that if you're not dating her. It's not right."

Harry looked down at Ginny, still in the circle of his arms. Her gaze was softer now, but still held some of that fire from before. How could she be this utterly brilliant and still want to be here?

"I'm sorry," he told her without a second thought. It was easy, effortless. "You were right, it was stupid."

Her lips quirked upwards in a small smile. "Well, it is noble of you to say so."

He felt his own smile return. "I guess we do still have some time."

She nodded and lifted up onto her tip-toes to kiss him sweetly once more.

"And that's it, then?" Hermione had her hands on her hips, and Harry thought she couldn't decide between being cross or amused at the pair of them. "You're just back together now? That's all it takes?"

Harry and Ginny shared a look before saying at once, "Yeah."

Hermione shook her head while Ron shrugged. "Who cares? We've gotten rid of one Horcrux, and now that Ginny's here she can help with the food. Mum's taught her loads."

"Except I can't use magic, prat. Still sixteen. The other reason traveling with someone else made sense." She gave a start and reached into her pocket. "Speaking of, I'll have to send Dean a message to let him know I haven't been carted off in the night. I'll leave your names out of it, shall I?"

"Yes, that would be best," Hermione agreed. "And honestly, Ron, Ginny doesn't automatically have to help with the cooking just because she's the only other girl."

"I only meant she knows more than all of us."

As Ron and Hermione started up, Harry couldn't find it in himself to get annoyed; their bickering was now far more reminiscent of their school days than the fraught arguments they'd been having only half an hour ago. The pall of Voldemort's presence had momentarily been lifted from their tent.

Harry knew that could really only last so long. They still had three Horcruxes to go and no idea where two of them were, not to mention Voldemort himself. Dumbledore's hints still only made a vague amount of sense. But as Ginny ducked under his arm to fit into his side while she worked on the message on her D.A. Galleon, he thought he could maybe start to see his own way through this.


End file.
